Representatives from South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe met in Victoria Falls at the weekend to co-ordinate their efforts to combat malaria, a statement from Old Mutual said on Sunday.
According to the World Health Organisation, who organised the event, malaria kills a million people a year, of which 90% are in Africa
”The Anopheles mosquito, which is responsible for transmitting malaria, is no respecter of borders. So the battle against malaria needs to be waged across borders,” said Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria.
Old Mutual said initiatives between South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland had been effective in fighting malaria. ”We want to replicate this model between Zambia and Zimbabwe.”
It is hoped that cross-border malaria control between South Africa and Zimbabwe would reduce malaria in Limpopo, which last year experienced a rise in malaria cases and deaths.
As part of the weekend’s initiative, nine South African executives were travelling in three rubber ducks down the length of the Zambezi River in peak malaria season to spread awareness about the disease.
The expedition — named the Old Mutual Zambezi Wakka — aimed to raise funds for malaria control.
Tim Cumming, a senior executive of Old Mutual and spokesperson for the trip, gave the Zambian provincial health director Dr Gardener Syakantu and Zimbabwe’s chief malariologist Dr L Charimari Hudson pumps. The pumps are used for spraying mosquito repellent on the inside walls of houses.
Indoor residual spraying programmes had dramatically cut malaria deaths on the Zambian copperbelt in the north of the country, the statement said.
The Old Mutual Zambezi Wakka plan is to reach Beira in Mozambique on April 16. – Sapa